A Message to our Five Guys Family on COVID-19

Updated May 8, 2020

As the impact of COVID-19 grows, we think it is important that you hear directly from us about the safety measures and operational changes we have enacted to keep you and our employees safe.

Our focus remains on the health and safety of our employees and customers while doing our part to restrict the spread of disease. We know it is critical for us to be transparent with information, and to be as proactive and responsive as we can be.

Cleaning and Sanitation

Our employees strictly adhere to Five Guys Standard Operating Procedures at the highest level of compliance. Additionally, touch points such as our Coke Freestyle machines, door handles, restrooms, keypads, trash receptacles and any self-service dispensers are cleaned and sanitized at an increased frequency.

Hand washing and glove changing have been a mandated in our standard operating procedures, but we have enhanced these protocols with an addition of hand sanitizer.

Employee Health and Wellness

We continue to reinforce our policy for employees reporting illness. Restaurants report directly to corporate if an employee is suspected to have been exposed to COVID-19, and we are ensuring those employees do not come to work. If there is concern for an employee, be it COVID-19 exposure or suspected illness, we work with local health department to sanitize and close stores as necessary.

We have implemented face masks for store employees across all of our locations and continue to promote social distancing within our restaurants. Additionally, we have begun to install plexiglass shields in front of our registers.

Serving our Customers with Limited Contact

The biggest adjustment for our brand has been the shift to a more digitally driven business model, as well as the introduction of contactless pickup and curbside delivery. Store hours and operations vary slightly, but all of our restaurants offer a mix of pickup (via online ordering), delivery and curbside. We continue to adhere to government mandates and local guidelines for restaurant operations in each jurisdiction we operate, but as states begin to reopen businesses, we assure you we will act with your best interest and safety in mind, maintaining social distancing measures and continuing to make cleanliness a top priority.

Health of our Business

As the COVID-19 crisis began to unfold in early March, we quickly recognized it served as an existential threat to our business and the livelihoods of our 30,000-plus employees. Our main priority was and remains to take actions that ensure our business remains solvent during and after this crisis, protecting the jobs of our employees in the process. The following actions have been taken to safeguard our company and employees:

We transitioned to a digital sales format in order to meet demand from our customers and to save jobs.

An immediate decision was made to maintain full compensation for our frontline workforce throughout this crisis. In fact, we recently introduced the Supporting Our Heroes Plan, which has boosted compensation by 20-plus percent for all store-level employees at our 500 corporately owned restaurants.

On March 25, we furloughed 50 percent of our corporate staff and reduced compensation for all remaining employees. Owners and senior executives have not received compensation since March 11.
In mid-March we began to pursue options to raise capital and improve our liquidity. These efforts continue.

On April 3. we applied for PPP funding. While guidance was confusing and in some cases contradictory, we were assured by relevant third parties that we qualified. Part of our logic in seeking funding was to help support our franchisee locations that employee less than 20 people. However, it soon became clear that small businesses, including those our franchisees operate, were being left out. It was at this time that our application was approved. Our owners determined that the best course of action was to return the funds, which was completed in late April. To confirm, we did not accept any funding from PPP and continue efforts to raise capital via other sources. As a family owned, private company we are finding that our access to outside capital is very limited.

While our business has been significantly and materially impacted by this crisis, we remain committed to providing the best experience we can. And we are seeing improvement. Our employees continue to show why they are the best in the business, upholding our brand promise in the most difficult of circumstances. We are humbled, and couldn’t be prouder.

This situation continues to change daily and as such, we will continue to follow the guidance provided by the CDC and local health departments. In addition, we promise to do all that we can to keep our employees, customers and the community safe – all while delivering you the best dining experience we can.

Thank you for your continued support and patience as we navigate this challenging time.